--- title: "A Driver Tricked Uber’s Algorithm, Sexually Assaulted a Passenger" description: "Last December, a man driving an authorized Uber vehicle picked up a passenger — an intoxicated woman leaving a Christmas party — brought her to his home, and raped her. The man, who The Age reports was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on Wednesday, was not an authorized Uber […]" date: "2019-09-13" modified: "2019-09-13" authors: - name: "Dan Robitzski" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/driver-ubers-algorithm-assaulted-passenger" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "assault" - "the digest" - "Uber" --- # A Driver Tricked Uber’s Algorithm, Sexually Assaulted a Passenger ![After a horrifying case where an unauthorized Uber driver raped his passenger, the company says its inroducing human oversight to its driver-verifying tech.]() *\Image: nrkbeta via Flickr/Victor Tangermann\* ## Terrifying Flaws In December 2018, a man driving an authorized Uber vehicle picked up an intoxicated woman leaving a Christmas party — and then brought her to his home and raped her. But the man, who *[The Age ]()*[reports]() was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on Wednesday, was not an authorized Uber driver. Rather, he was able to easily fool Uber's verification system by holding up a photo of a real driver. In other words, the AI technology that Uber uses to verify that its drivers are who they claim to be — like [Amazon delivery drivers](), Uber contractors take a selfie when signing on — wasn't sophisticated enough to spot a printed headshot. It's a horrifying story that illustrates the perils of big tech offloading security to dodgy AI systems. ## De-Automating Uber [told *Business Insider*]() that it deployed a fix in response to the December incident. The company hired an undisclosed number of humans to review the driver-verifying selfies this year, it said — and also implemented better AI. ## Higher Standards Apparently, it works — *The Age* reports that drivers posting in online forums are talking less about operating scam rings and more about how difficult it is to get the system to approve a selfie. But it all raises the question of why the improved security wasn't in place from the start ­— the unauthorized driver may have been fooling Uber's security protocols since 2016, according to *The Age*. **READ MORE:** [Uber introduces human reviewers to crack down on drivers evading security selfie system with printed photos after Australian rape case]() \[*Business Insider*\] **More on Uber drivers:** *[Uber and Lyft Still Allow Racist Behavior, but Not as Much as Taxi Services]()* ## Author Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California. ### Author social links [Twitter]()